Tag: Public Relations

A Chevron employee working together with a student to repaint a brighter learning facility

Laguna, Philippines, September 19, 2016 — Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), marketer of Caltex fuels and lubricants, jumpstarted its Week of Caring (WOC) 2016 by repainting school facilities such as library, armchairs and playground rides for two elementary schools in Laguna: Bay Central Elementary School and Calamba Special Education (SPED) center.

The CPI volunteers worked with the students to repaint Bay Central’s library specifically, its 11 bookshelves and 1,600 square feet of concrete walls. While, armchairs, playground rides, the perimeter wall and two steel gates were repainted at the SPED center.

A total of 195 volunteer hours were logged in during the first two days of the annual Chevron volunteerism program. The CPI volunteers also donated a hundred books to the library’s “Knowledge is Energy” corner which made learning more fun for the students with the added visuals.

“By helping renovate school facilities to make them more conducive to learning, and especially by focusing on improving schools’ libraries, we hope to instill in the minds of the students that the library is still a very good place for knowledge and learning even in the digital age,” said Jhon Osorio, CPI Finance Manager.

The heads of the schools stressed the impact of the school brigade activities of the Week of Caring. “It gave life to our library and improved the school’s learning resource management and development system. Our library’s new fully polished condition creates a good atmosphere and convenience to cater to the student’s needs,” said Nemeflor Gumobao, Bay Central Elementary School principal.

“It’s the first time our children encountered this kind of activity where they had a great level of participation and involvement with a social investment program. It gave them a sense of fulfillment, boosted their self-confidence and created an opportunity for them to discover hidden talents and new passions they can enjoy for the rest of their lives,” said Mr. Rey O. Borillo, SPED center school principal.

“It was my son’s first time to participate in this kind of school brigade activity. Although it was new to him, he enjoyed it too much to the extent of wanting to paint the entire chair on his own without my help. That’s how dedicated he is. I’m grateful to Chevron for providing this opportunity for my child and the entire SPED center community to have a memorable experience, and for the activity’s lasting impact to the school,” shared Imelda Gueverra, one of the parent-volunteers.

The school library renovation and repainting of SPED center facilities form part of Chevron’s annual Week of Caring program which advocates diversity among its employees and business partners through volunteerism to benefit host communities and disadvantaged people.

About Chevron Philippines Inc.

Chevron Philippines Inc. has been operating in the country for more than 90 years. Caltex™, its retail brand, offers high quality products and services. There are close to 700 service stations strategically scattered throughout the Philippine archipelago and employees working in several areas of business such as Marketing, Lubricants and Terminal operations. The Chevron products that are available in the Philippines include Caltex with Techron® fuel and Caltex Diesel with Techron®D, Havoline® and Delo® oils. More information on Chevron Philippines Inc. is available at www.caltex.com/ph.

Brands with social media presence should not miss out on creating buzz and awareness during special occasions and popular holidays.

Take for instance Halloween, one of the most awaited occasions in the Philippines. It’s a time for adults to dress up and party, and for children to roam the neighborhood while trick or treating.

Contest winners used charms and skills to score likes.

Last Halloween, Ardenites donned their horror costumes and participated in a Facebook contest dubbed, “Post as Your Creepiest”. Participants posted their Halloween-worthy pics on ArdentComm’s Facebook page. The three photos with the most number of likes from November 1 to 6 were declared winners. The prizes were GCs to one of Metro Manila’s most popular eat-all-you-can buffets.

The contest was a success as it pulled in sweet numbers in a mere five days: 116 new fans, 3,873 reach, 709 engagements and 43 comments. All these at practically no cost except for the GCs. The online banter between staff and their friends also showed the intangible but vital elements of fun and creativity.

Any company or brand can do such easy holiday-themed contests with great results. Make sure your contest has the elements of:

1. Timeliness. Everyone wants to part of something. More so when that something is currently in the air. Special occasions give us that opportunity to unite in celebration and be part of a community. Companies should take advantage of popular holidays to mobilize their fans. They already like the brand and they’re just waiting to be engaged. Make them do fun stuff. Stir the nest. Create excitement. There are holidays happening year-round that offer tons of contest ideas aside from Halloween such as New Year, Valentines Day, Easter, Mothers’ Day, Independence Day, and Christmas.

2. Simplicity. Make it easy to join and spread the word. Throw out the complicated mechanics. It kills the mood. Keep the excitement alive by increasing who can join. Don’t alienate a particular segment of your fans by, say, barring students, especially if your brand is patronized by this group. Rules should be easy to follow and remember. Fan the flames further by making use of the Share button.

3. Champions. Every company has a ready pool of champions just waiting to be tapped and that’s none other than their employees. What’s more, these employees have social media platforms with several layers of friends. If the staff understands that it is in their interest to promote the company or the brand, they would be more than willing to do some heavy lifting. They’d be proud to showcase to their friends how they are an active part of a company. The promise of a price or incentive is only added motivation.

Social media is effective when companies keep things social. Popular occasions are social events that bring everyone together. Get your brand involved in the celebrations. This makes it easy for people to get behind your brand. Your employees get to do something that is visible to external audiences. And netizens who would not encounter your brand otherwise get to be new fans.

While your competitors wrack their brains trying to think of new gimmicks, you have your social media campaigns lined-up for the next 12 months thanks to popular holidays that happen year-round.

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – November 13, 2015. Of the reported 400 fatal road accidents in Metro Manila last year, more than 200 involved children 15 years and below, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

This is why the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association (MDPPA), composed of leading motorcycle manufacturers such as Honda Philippines Inc., Kawasaki Motors Philippines Corporation, Suzuki Philippines Inc., Yamaha Motor Philippines Inc., and Kymco Philippines, Inc.; is using Public Relations to promote safety, especially among children.

The MDPPA’s Road Safety Seminar for Children uses interactive road safety education activities right in the campuses of different elementary schools in Metro Manila as part of the organization’s advocacy. The second leg of the seminar, held in collaboration with the Far Eastern University-Nicanor Reyes Educational Foundation Diliman College (FEU-FERN), included hands-on exercises, road situation simulation in the portable children’s road safety park and the appearance of MDPPA’s mascot “Rodi”. The one-day event was held last September in FEU-FERN campus in Diliman, Quezon City and was attended by grade two pupils.

Grade Two teacher and one of the seminar speakers Deceree Carimal shed light about the innovative format of the seminar. “Children are visual learners so they need to see what’s being explained,” she said, noting that it is more difficult to impart the lessons by just verbally explaining the concepts. Carimal added that when children see adults violating traffic rules, it is very likely that they will mimic what the adults are doing.

Rodel Pablo, president of MDPPA, explained the importance of the activity, “Sadly, a large number of the adult population in the country either don’t follow road safety rules, or are not actively teaching their kids. Training the children about road safety would significantly reduce the rate of road crashes in the future.”

Pablo also shared the vision of MDPPA’s members, “MDPPA puts road safety at the forefront of our initiatives. Also, our member-motorcycle manufacturers all believe that as road safety is for all it is also a shared responsibility and should be a continuing effort “

“A major cause of road crashes is the intentional ignorance of traffic rules,” said Engr. Alberto Suansing, Secretary General of the Philippine Global Road Safety Partnership (PGRSP), a non-profit organization that brings together government agencies, business entities and civil society to address global and local road safety issues. “We have to inculcate the habit of following traffic rules among children, and impress on them the ideas that discipline and adherence to safety practices—for example, as simple as wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle and crossing the road using the pedestrian lane—are what will save their lives. The best way to start is to simplify the lessons by using visual and practical learning strategies,” added Suansing, who is also the former assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and was in concurrent capacity as Chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

The Road Safety Seminar for Children is also in pace with the UN Road Safety Collaboration’s global campaign called “#SaveKidsLives”, which aims to make roads safer for everyone especially the children. MDPPA plans to hold the seminar in more elementary schools this quarter.